The Yes Man

Knowing that my stay in New York could be limited to the eight weeks that MSBA has scheduled for me, my goal was to take advantage of every opportunity that arose. With that, I’m proud to say that I did not miss a guest speaker or a trip to a company during the entire MSBA program. 

Outside all of the programming that MSBA has given me, as mentioned in my previous posts, I work at Platinum Rye Entertainment doing any and every type of research possible. I’ve done my best to seize every opportunity to be on the phone calls and email chains that come in and out of my office on a daily basis. Since the month of July, I have had the opportunity to sit down with my boss on a daily basis to review what he has done during the day, so I can see the day to day business from a higher level.

To take advantage of something is to not only doing the task, but to execute that task to its fullest extent and get the most out of it possible. As stated, I’ve done my best to do that with MSBA’s activities and with my internship, but I’ve tried to do it on another level that all of our speakers have talked about: relationships. From the day we moved into the dorms, I made sure to create long lasting relationships with everyone apart of MSBA. Going out in New York with my new friends has been a must every chance I could to make sure that I got 24 hours out of my day. Mech, MB, Brandon, and I even made it to a taping of the Daily Show with John Stewart last week.

Erik Zelman

The reason the title of this blog is The Yes Man is not because I seized every opportunity that came about. The Yes Man is a tribute. Last night, a friend of mine passed away at the age of 25 from Marfan Syndrome after his father had passed away from the same disease a year ago at the age of 61. The disease has an average life expectancy of 35 years old. Although Erik was not a very close friend of mine, any time you would go near him, there would be an amazingly positive aura. Erik was a Yes Man. If you were moving, he was there helping. If the lady in front of him at the grocery store was $3.00 short, he’d give her $5.00. If you had an idea, he would have already thought of three ways of going about doing it. Erik in general was a kind-hearted person who wouldn't say no, even if that was the answer you thought you'd get.

Being a Yes Man isn’t about saying yes all the time, it’s about taking advantage of every opportunity presented because there is never a good answer to the question why not. New York, MSBA, and friends it’s been an incredible eight weeks.